March 2019 is the Eastern Iowa Airport’s (CID) largest monthly passenger total in the airport’s history.
March is typically the largest passenger traffic month due to numerous university, college and school district spring breaks – but this past March saw 10.2 percent more people fly CID than the previous record set in March 2018.
There were 121,644 passengers in March, compared to 110,381 in 2018.
Year-to-date passenger traffic at CID is up 5.5 percent over the same time period as last year.
Marty Lenss, CID airport director, says seeing those numbers increase is about more than breaking records.
“It’s always fun to be able to say, ‘We broke another record,’ but what is even more important is how airlines look at the increased traffic,” he says. “Airlines need to fly into markets where people are traveling, whether it’s for work or business.
“The more people choose to fly CID, more opportunities will open up for us to talk with our airline partners about enhancing existing service or adding new service,” Lenss says. “There are many factors involved in retaining and recruiting new service, but No. 1 is having the market respond, and fill the seats.”
Allegiant’s new seasonal nonstop service to Nashville International Airport begins May 17. The service will start May 17 with two weekly flights (Mondays and Fridays). Starting in June until August 12, Allegiant will offer Monday, Wednesday and Friday service. Tickets are on sale at allegiant.com.
This is the second seasonal destination Allegiant offers during the summer at CID. Allegiant has provided nonstop service to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for the past five summers. The first LAX flight is scheduled for June 5, with the last flight of the season scheduled for Aug. 10. Tickets are on sale now.
In other air service enhancements, United Airlines has included a third nonstop flight to Denver for its summer schedule. The flight will be on a regional jet and departs CID at 11:30 a.m. This will complement the airlines two regularly scheduled Denver flights on its Airbus 319. Those flights depart CID at 6 a.m. and 2:55 p.m. Tickets are on sale at united.com
Overall seat capacity for the summer is up five percent over 2018.
